The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has sealed the Priesthood Orphanage in Karon Majigi Village, Abuja, after 23 children between the ages of one and 14 were rescued from the orphanage.
The children were believed to have been allegedly trafficked from Plateau.
The Mandate Secretary, Women Affairs Secretariat, FCTA, Mrs Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, disclosed this while handing over the children to Plateau Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Caroline Dafur, in Abuja on Monday, noting that an investigation was ongoing to unravel the facts of the allegation.
Benjamins-Laniyi also said that the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, had authorized the Secretariat to profile and recertify orphanages operating within the nation’s capital.
The mandate secretary said that the Secretariat was already working with Dafur to reunite the children with their families adding that some of the children had been in the uncertified orphanage since 2019.
“Using this as an example, one of the first things I have done is to get approval for the recertification of orphanage homes in Abuja.
“The Minister has approved that there will be a full and thorough reprofiling and recertification of anything that has to do with orphanages in Abuja,” she said.
She noted that the escaped children were discovered by officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps, who reported the case to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons.
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